


Stop, Thief!

by woodenwashbucket



Category: The Queen's Thief - Megan Whalen Turner
Genre: Family, Fluff, Gen, Post-ROTT, Spoilers for Book 6: Return of the Thief (Queen's Thief), thieves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-05
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:53:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27903274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/woodenwashbucket/pseuds/woodenwashbucket
Summary: A game of catch-the-Thief doesn't necessarily need to involve the current Thief, though it usually does somehow eventually.orWhat did you expect these royal children to be like?
Comments: 10
Kudos: 22





	Stop, Thief!

“Stop, thief!”

Attolis stopped in his tracks just inside the atrium, and all his attendants and guards halted with him. The king looked up and back curiously at the second story balcony, which was echoing with further yells and running footsteps growing closer.

“Your majesty?” the squad leader on duty asked.

The king merely waved for the guards and attendants to stay where they were and walked across the rest of the atrium, pausing under the far balcony with his right arm behind his back. He had scarcely made it there when a tiny body hurled itself from the balcony the guards and attendants were clustered under towards the far one.

There were gasps of awe as Eugenia flew across the atrium, but she was short of her target. Both palms smacked the edge of the balcony floor, and she fell neatly onto her waiting father. Without hesitation or thanks, she scrambled onto his shoulders to face the balcony she’d jumped from.

“It doesn’t count!” she bellowed up at the people crowded up against the railing. “He wasn’t in the game!”

The king’s attendants and guards came out further into the atrium to look at who had been chasing the princess. The front row included Hector, Achates, Iris, and Camilla, and over their heads Costis looking professional and slightly impressed and Chloe with wide, frightened eyes and both hands clutching her chest. As they stood there, Pylaster wiggled his little five-year-old body between his sister and cousin to see through the railing. Behind them all were crowded more attendants and several guards in Attolian and Sounisian colors.

Hector looked mutinous.

“It doesn’t count!” Eugenia bellowed again, and shook her tiny fists at them all. Her brother considered.

“Where are the others?” Attolis called up in a more reasonable tone.

“In the nursery still, with the queen,” Costis called down. “Phresine is telling them a story.”

“Fine!” Hector bellowed back. He was even louder than his sister.

Eugenia started to scramble down her father’s back. He moved his hook out of her path and remarked mildly “You need more practice gauging distances.”

On the balcony, Hector and Camilla both whined “Costis” pleadingly. The king watched them out of the corner of his eye.

Eugenia paused with her face on a level with his. “No I don’t,” she retorted. “Mama said to tell you that word has come from Ferria. Dite says Melenze is in debt to the Pents again.”

“So, so, so,” he said. He tapped her hands, which she had kept tightly closed since she fell. “And I suppose you tore up both palms on purpose too, so that Galen and Petrus could have a hand to patch up each?”

Eugenia wiggled a loose tooth with her tongue and considered her answer. Back on the balcony, Costis threw his hands up in defeat and climbed over the railing, while Chloe pulled Iris, Achates, and Pylaster away and led the bulk of the cavalcade back down the hallway toward the nearest stairs. Costis dropped lightly to the ground and held his arms up, waiting for Hector and Camilla to decide who got to jump down first.

“Yes,” Eugenia decided. Her father laughed and kissed her forehead.

“Be blessed in your endeavors, little thief,” he whispered. She wiggled the rest of the way to the floor, grinned at him with a glint in her eye, and took off down the hall that would lead her eventually to the gardens.

Hector jumped from Costis’ arms to the floor and scrambled after her, yelling.

“Stop, thief!”

**Author's Note:**

> Hector and Eugenia are of course the canonical twins. I'm imagining them as about nine years old here.  
> The other children:   
> Camilla is Sophos and Helen's daughter who is a few weeks younger than the twins, and Pylaster is her younger brother.  
> Achates is the twins' younger brother, and is about seven.   
> Iris is Ion and Zenia's daughter, about eight and close companion to the twins.   
> The younger children include Irene and Gen's youngest who is still nursing, hence Irene staying in the nursery with them.


End file.
